A Minnesota teen narrowly escaped danger after his snowmobile took a plunge into icy waters last Friday. The Benton County Sheriff's Office reported that a 16-year-old from Rice was out for a ride on Little Rock Lake when his vehicle fell through thin ice at around 11:30 a.m., according to KSTP.
The youngster managed to claw his way back to solid ice; before making his way to a nearby fish house, a witness who observed the incident made an emergency call. Fortunately, a good Samaritan angler provided a lift to shore, and deputies met with the boy at St. Regis landing, where he was treated for hypothermia, reported by CBS News Minnesota.
"He was then treated for hypothermia and said that he saw open water while driving the snowmobile but wasn’t able to stop in time and fell in," detailed the sheriff’s office in a statement obtained by KSTP.
In the wake of these incidents, local authorities are amplifying calls for caution on frozen lakes. Despite recent low temperatures, many areas still exhibit dangerously thin ice. The sheriff's department urges ice enthusiasts to carry self-rescue and flotation devices when venturing onto these precarious frozen surfaces. "Even with the colder temperatures recently, there is still thin ice and open water in many areas of Little Rock Lake and many other lakes," the sheriff’s office noted.
